Trade Carts

The other day i went all out and began testing on how effective trade carts to an empires gold count. My findings are interesting. First i would like to say if the game is long enough, and the battles equal enough, gold will become scarce and players dependant totaly upon trade to gather gold. Trade Carts cost gold which makes them a bit hard to get to in early games since most players find themsleves attacking or being attacked in castle. Though we see the market in feudal there is hardly enough spare wood laying around to throw into a fleet of carts. From a personal stand point i begin trade in late castle (35 - 40 min), or in imperial when i forget to make carts.

Though Carts have a cost of 100 woods and 50 gold and take a while to get going (build time) they are worth it in any case. So here is a list of pros and cons.

Pros

. Carts can constanly keep a steady income of gold
. Any player in any civ can make them

Cons

.high build time
.must be protected from enemy calavary raids
.high gold cost

Spanish on any team adds a grand benifit. And each player knows that if you don't exploit the benifits of any civ you are wasting your time playing. So if you play with a spanish player on your team, or you are a spanish player take advantage of the +3 more gold return, and build some carts

Trade carts gather gold from other players markets. The amount they gain depends totaly on distance between markets, not distance the carts need to travel. This is important to note since if you have walls and poorly placed gates, carts will have to spend more time wonderring between markets and less time bringing in the gold. You can find any ally players market by using the (alt+r). It is the gold coin symbol at the bottom right of the game screen. Once you click it any of your team’s colors seen on the board are locations of markets.

Another interesting thing to note about trade carts is that each map size matters to what each market returns. For instance on a tiny map with 40 tiles between markets the rate of return is 11. But on a small map the return rate for the same tile space is 9. Here is a quick referenc list

Tiny----11 gold-----with 40 tiles between markets
Small-----9 gold-----with 40 tiles between markets
Medium----10 gold-----with 40 tiles between markets
Normal----9 gold-----with 40 tiles between markets
Large-----9 gold-----with 40 tiles between markets
Giant-----8 gold-----with 40 tiles between markets

The rate at which this increase is not constant. For instance if there is total of 80 tiles spaced between each markets (twice 40) the return rate is not 18, instead it is 27. In this case it was hard for me to base a good ratio of how much each carts brings in per tiles traveled. So i came up with a quick reference chart for three of the 6 maps. I chose only 3 since the other three are more rarely played upon in team games.

In the following examples i used 5 same player carts and 2 markets. One market was from my player and another from a team player. I also used walls to count tiles between each market and I done this since each wall takes only one tile space when it is placed on the map. As i watched i noticed how the carts reacted. When their line of sight (LOS) notices the friendly market the spread out so as to keep from bumping and thereby use less time scrambling around and more time gathering gold. However this did not prevent bumbing and crowding so there were occasions where they would stop and move out of the way of each other. On this example i used a clear path with no hills and obstacles (trees, mines, villagers, and buildings). In this way they traveled directly to and from the markets. The trade carts were not produced but instead were on the map when I began the test.

Carts travel at a rate of about 40 tiles in 30 seconds with caravan and half that without caravans. So if the markets are 40 tiles apart it takes 1 minute for them to make one trip. The advantage of having carts trading in markets is seen in how much gold they bring in a second. This is an average, meaning that gold is not accumulated each second, but in each drop off.

Medium Map Size

40 tiles between markets
10 gold at markets
gathered 100 gold in 2 min
gold a second .833

80 tiles between markets
27 gold at market
gathered 135 gold in 2 min
gold a scound 1.125
aprox. 0 increase from 40 tiles

120 tiles between markets
54 gold at markets
gathered 270 gold in 3 min
gold a second 1.5
aprox. 45% increase form 80 tiles
aprox. 100% increase from 40 tiles

Let me give you an example of how this is effective. Lets say you have 10 gold miners in castle working and gathering at standard rate. Plue a relic and 5 trade carts gathering at 40 tiles. Your income would be in this
.4 gold a second from miners * 10 (for each miner)
.5 gold from the one relic
.833 gold from all 5 trade carts

for a total of 5.333 gold a second.
In a minute 300
in 5 minutes 1500
Not to bad. Now onto more map sizes.

Normal Map Size

40 tiles between markets
9 gold at market
gathered 90 gold in 2 min
.75 gold a second

80 tiles between markets
25 gold at market
gathered 127 gold in 2 min
1.05 gold a second
aprox. 25% increase from 40 tiles

120 tiles between markets
49 gold at market
gathered 246 gold in 2:50 min
1.44 gold a second
aprox. 40% increase from 80 tiles
aprox. 100% increase from 40 tiles

160 tiles between markets
80 gold at markets
gathered 400 gold in 3:45
1.77 gold a second
aprox. 30% increase from 120 tiles
aprox. 70% increase from 80 tiles
aprox. 125% increase from 40 tiles

Large Map Size

40 tiles from each market
9 gold at market
gathered 86 gold in 2 min
.716 gold a second

80 tiles from each market
24 gold at market
gathered 120 gold in 2 min
1 gold a second
aprox. 30% increase from 40 tiles

120 tiles from each market
46 gold at market
gathered 230 in 2:50
1.35 gold a second
aprox. 35% increase from 80 tiles
aprox. 65% increase from 40 tiles

160 tiles from each market
75 gold at markets
gathered 375 in 3:45
1.66 gold a second
aprox. 30% increase from 120 tiles
aprox. 65% increase from 80 tiles
aporx. 120% increase from 40 tiles

200 tiles from each market
110 at markets
gathered 550 in 4:40
1.96 gold a second
aprox. 30% increase from 160 tiles
aprox. 60% increase from 120 tiles
aprox. 95% increase from 80 tiles
aprox. 150% increase from 40 tiles

Conclusion.
It is easy to see the only way to gain an advantage in having markets with trade carts is to have a good distance between the markets. If at all posable build more than one market so that you can produce more trade carts faster, and thereby making the money quicker. If you examine your markets and see that they are returning only 20-30 gold, build another market further away. Cause if you don’t you are not making enough gold quick enough.

Don’t be afraid to have 20+ trade carts on the board by late imperial. Doing so could give you the edge you need to win. Remember your allies can use the gold even if you can’t. For a final example of how effective carts are…..

20 carts it a distance of 200 tiles brings in 110 gold.

On the previous table that would mean bringing in some 7-8 gold a secound.
80 in ten seconds
480 in one minute
2400 in 5 minutes.